Written in Ink
by petitprincess
Summary: Just a simple backstory of what took place before the events of Bendy and the Ink Machine. Yes, simple, just Henry and Joey buying a cheap, run-down workshop for their new animation studio and finding out it belongs to some cult that had once worshipped some uncanny, unpredictable gods that'll tear them apart. ...Dreams sure do come true. Rated T for future violence.
1. Beginnings

**A/N: Well, I said I would I make a Bendy fanfic and I did. Also, sorry if it's a bit slow. I tried my best to not rush things, hopefully, it's not moving at such a snail pace. And I have no idea how long I want this to be. I'm guessing near 10 chapters, but that's not really certain at the moment. So, this will have slow updates. Anyway, enjoy!**

 **Just in case, whenever Chapter 2 comes out for the game, I will establish that this is canon divergent. So, if anything I put in this is wrong, well, just take it as if it was it's own AU (alternate universe).**

* * *

"Will you tell me where you're taking me?"

"No, not yet. ...Alright, now raise your foot up here-"

"Joey, I swear if you're taking me to get murdered, I'm going to kill you."

"Yeah, yeah. And, we're here! What do you think?"

Removing his hands from his partner's eyes, the younger man blinked to get his eyes adjusted. The man gawked at the, uh, less than admirable scene before him. It was an empty, run-down wood paneled room. There had been some planks missing from both the floors and walls, there were visible layers of dust on surfaces, various sized holes in ceiling revealed pipes, there was a sound of dripping _somewhere_ , and cobwebs, _lots_ of cobwebs. The partner turned around to look at his rotund friend and feigned, "Uh, wow, Joe. Um, this is a, uh," he turned back to the dilapidated room, "a-a nice place you got."

The lankier man coughed as Joey smacked him hard on his back as he exclaimed, "Isn't it!? I know it doesn't look like much now, but let me tell you Henry, this place is going to bigger than Disney by the time we become famous."

 _Right…,_ Henry thought while rolling his eyes at the overblown thought. As his partner rambled about their soon-to-be fame, the tan-skinned man went down the hallway to the right, wincing a bit at the creaking floor boards. Ignoring the the random, abrupt end of the hall, he took another right down another corridor. At the end, there was a medium-sized room that held a few stacked wooden, splinter filled chairs. While making a mental note to sand the chairs down, he went down another hallway to find a boarded up room. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, all senses telling him that that room meant bad news. He took a deep breath and sighed, "That could mean anything. ...Maybe they just wanted to tear down that room, but couldn't so they just boarded it up. Yeah, that sounds possible."

The lanky man also notice that there more hallways on the right and left. He groaned internally, _Whoever built this place_ really _liked hallways._ So, he wandered down the left hall, took another left after he came to a small room, took a right, and then found himself in what looked like a screening room. There were more neglected chairs, except these were in rows like how a movie theater is set up. He also saw an old timey movie projector. He walked further into the room and noticed that this room wasn't as uncared for as the rest of the place. Granted, there were still holes in the ceiling and walls, and that the projector was covered in grime, but other than that it was in pretty good shape. Henry guessed, "Well, I probably would want this to be the last room to get ruined."

As he looked around the dusty room, he noticed that there was a wide nook. Feeling curious, he stepped towards the gap and saw that there was a little button on the wall. He stepped closer and saw the word above it were scratched out. However, the button clearly read "flow" and made his curiosity grow even more. _I wonder what's it supposed to 'flow' to,_ the man thought to himself. Throwing caution to the wind, he pressed the button. ….Nothing happened. ….Well, after that bit of excitement, Henry made his way back to the workshop, ignoring the tingling in the back of his head as he passed the boarded room again.

* * *

When he made it to the workshop, he saw Joey carrying another grimey film projector. Peaking out from behind the machine, Joe asked, "Grk! Henry, c-come help me with this."

Immediately coming to his side, he helped lift the heavy projector and the two placed it on a rickety table. Both flinched a bit as the table creaked and wobbled under the weight of the machine, but it did nothing more than that. Not even letting a beat of silence pass, Joey exclaimed, "Henry, do you see this?"

Henry took a quick side glance at it and said dryly, "Sure do."

The chubby man groaned, "No, you don't get it! This is our inspiration!"

"...A film projector?"

"Yes! I'm thinking that we should do like a 20s maybe 30s type of cartoon. Smart, amirite?"

The tan-skinned man just rose an eyebrow at his mustachioed friend and replied, "Well, I do think a few words. Tiring, archaic, maybe even foolish, but smart isn't one of those words."

"What!? Oh, c'mon, what can go wrong?" As soon as the words left his mouth, the table suddenly gave out and collapsed, falling into splintered pieces. "Coincidence," Joey quickly said, causing his friend to once again roll his eyes. Seeing the unconvinced stare Henry was giving him, he begged, "Just give it a chance, Henry. Who knows? This could be great for us! We could become something worthwhile in this podunk town, maybe even bring in a crowd here. Please? I won't continue on without you."

Looking away from Joey's puppy dog eyes, he pondered, _Well, I mean this place is a complete dump, but it's not like that can't be easily fixed. We also have quite a group of friends that's willing to be put into this project, anything worth practicing animation. Not only that, but this sounds better than just finding some soul-sucking, sellout company that worries about nothing except for merchandising to work for._ He looked back at his friend, who still had a pleading look in his eyes, but it was slowly fading. Henry sighed and concluded, "We have to fix this place fir-"

Before he could finish, another hard smack on his back caused the air in his lungs to retreat. Joe exclaimed, "Ha! I knew you'd come around! Now, let's move this thing."

Rubbing his definitely bruised back, he started, "Sure, where did it come-"

"Oh, no! We ain't carrying it back there! There's so many damn hallways I don't think I can find my way back anyway," his friend just chuckled at his friend's griping. Another tingling sensation came to the back of Henry's head. Scratching it, he turned and a saw an unmarked door. He tapped his friend on the shoulder and tilted his head towards the door. Smiling, Joey picked up the projector and grunted, "G-Go on. Open the, guh, door."

As soon as the door was opened wide enough, the chubby friend haphazardly threw in the projector. Before Henry could scold, a chorus of smashing sounds echoed out from the opened room. The two looked down and saw that the room led down some stairs, however, it was too dark to see where the, now broken, projector was. Henry sighed as he took out his phone to turn on the flashlight. He was stopped when Joey suddenly chimed in, "Uh, you know what, it-it's my fault, I'll get the projector."

The lankier friend only raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised that he was actually trying to be a bit mature. Despite the weird behavior, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, he just tossed Joey his phone and watched his friend descend for a few seconds. After a few seconds of watching pitch blackness, Henry thought, _Well, I'm not getting anything done just by standing around. I might as well see if they left any other projectors. Bound to be one in these sea of doors._ With that in mind, he left to embark on another _thrilling_ adventure.

* * *

 **Don't worry, Joey isn't crazy yet. His reason for not wanting Henry to go down into the basement will be explained next chapter. Also, there will be a slight POV change (still in third person), but it will be brief. I hope I didn't screw up these characters, yeah I know we don't really know their personalities, especially Joey, but I still hope I'm making them...human. Does that make sense? Anyway, not much else to say. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please tell me if you want me to continue! Review, please!**

 **Also, just in case anyone says anything, yeah I have a weird theory that this actually takes place in current years, but the place is fixed up to look like the 20s or 30s. I know it kinda doesn't make sense, but I honestly just was too lazy to do research based around the 1920s. Give me a break okay, I'm trying ;-;...So, yeah, don't tell me I got the time period wrong.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Bendy and the Ink Machine.**


	2. There Was Nothing?

**A/N: Sorry that this took a while, but I wanted to make sure I didn't make this go too rushed. I apologize if it does feel that way though. I tried. Also, ignore any spelling/punctuation errors. I'm too lazy to fix them XP. Yeah, that's all I got to say. Enjoy!**

* * *

As Henry left to go do...whatever it is he does, Joey descended down the stairs to go find the broken projector. As he walked down the stairs, he started thinking, _I don't know why he got so upset about me throwing this down here. Doubt it ever worked in the first place,_ despite knowing that he still felt a bit guilty about his carelessness. He shook off the feeling of guilt and started focusing on the increasing buzz on the back of his head. He started feeling it when Henry opened the door. Joey didn't know what it was, but something made him want to go down there himself. He didn't want to see his friend get hurt...also he didn't want to pay for the place all by himself. The light-skinned man grimaced, "Okay, even I know that was pretty bad."

Before his foot could touch the last step, there was loud crunching sound under his feet. He pointed the flashlight down and saw that there were chunks of metal and glass. He sighed and rubbed his face in exasperation. He was about to yell for Henry to get a broom, but then as soon as he turned he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. Turning back around, he shined flashlight towards the source and found some graffiti on the floor, surrounding it was four slightly melted candles. Joe murmured, "What the hell?"

Feeling, not only curiosity, but an actual burning in the back of his mind, as he completely descended down the steps and saw an interesting image in front of him. On the floor, there was a pentagram that looked like it was traced out of some red substance ***** , looking up a bit, there also was what looked like a few wooden, handmade coffins. He felt his palms get clammy as images passed of what was contained within those coffins. As he shined the flashlight around, there was nothing else within the basement save for a few tables, despite knowing that an eerie feeling crept over him. It felt almost as if someone had soaked him ice water, leaving him feeling a bitter, bone-chilling coldness throughout his body. _Maybe it was a bad idea coming h-_

Before he could finish his thought, when he flashed the light around the room again, the buzzing increased tenfold when the beam hit a certain corner. Unfortunately, the beam didn't reach far, so all he saw was inky darkness. As soon as he took one step in that direction, the buzzing turned into a static-like sound and there was a very faint whisper. He squinted to try and see if he could find a figure or something to show someone was down here. He shout whispered, "Hello. Is there someone down here?"

 _ **Ta-. I-. Fr-.**_

"Hello?" Joey repeated as he walked closer to the noise, feeling a slight draw towards...whatever it was. The light beam finally was close enough to make out a certain object, not only that, but the voice became more frantic, elated. It repeated the clipped words: _**T-! I-! T-! I-! Pl-! Fr-!**_

Joey's mind went blank with nothing but the constant static whirring and the pleading from the disembodied voice. He mindlessly walked closer and closer, unknowingly dropping the-now forgotten-phone on the ground. As he got closer to the solid object, the voice and the whirring became deafening, making him instinctively cover his ears, close his eyes, and clench his jaw in pain. Unfortunately, this only caused the pull to become stronger and the voice to scream: _**N-! GR-! I-! T-! I-!**_

" **Grab** _ **what** **!?**_ What are y-" before he could finish what he was saying, his eyes widened at what he saw. The voice and the static sound ceased.

* * *

 _I couldn't find anymore of those damn projectors in this place. Then again, a lot of the doors were locked, probably because he didn't close the deal for this building. I'm pretty sure there's another projector in here somewhere._ When Henry made his way back to the main room, he noticed that the door to the basement _,_ _at least that's what I think that's what's down there,_ was still open. Not only that, but Joey hadn't made his way back up. He warily walked over to the open door and peeked down into the room. He was greeted by nothing but silence and darkness. He called, "Hey, Joey! You doing alright down there!?"

Nothing but silence. He felt a small chill up his spine. He self-comforted, "Calm down, Henry. What do you think is going on down there? Some type of monster had gotten him?"

He chuckled silently to himself only for the foreboding feeling to come back, since his friend still had not made a sound. He swallowed a small lump in his throat and stammered, "H-Hey, Joey, don't fr-freak out, but I'm c-coming down there!"

As soon as he place one foot on the first step, he saw a beam of light coming closer towards the steps. He tensed up a bit, feeling slightly paranoid at what it could be. Despite mentally berating himself for his childish fear, he called hesitantly once more, "J-Joey?"

Once again, silence.

….

….

"Yeah, Yeah! I'm coming up!"

Henry let out a breath he didn't even know that he was holding. He back away when he saw his rotund friend make his way up the stairs. When he was close enough, the lankier friend asked, "So, uh, did you get the projector?"

After he made it up the stairs and slammed the door shut, he replied, "Yeah, I did and it was smashed to pieces-"

"Boy, I wondered how that happen-"

" _Anyway,_ I did find a bit of graffiti down there."

Hearing that made Henry raise an eyebrow, he repeated, "Graffiti?"

"Yeah, damn teenagers these days! Don't got respect for nothing," the chubby huffed, face a little red, whether it was from the ascend or the anger Henry didn't know. _We're in our 20s,_ the tan-skinned man snarked, but decided not to voice. He started thinking that he should ask about the graffiti, but decided it couldn't be that important. It was probably was just a dick drawing or something. Instead he just shrugged his shoulder and asked while the two made their way to the exit, "Did you find anything else?"

"Nah! Nothing else, other than a few tables, but I doubt we'll really _need_ them," the mustachioed man replied, walking over to their car. This caused Henry to rub the back of his neck in nervousness. He realized the buzzing stopped when he got near the steps, but still-nothing? He queried, "You sure? There was nothing else?"

Joey narrowed his eyes at his friend and repeated, "Yeah...nothing. You alright, Henry?"

The darker skinned man looked back at the warehouse/studio and said, "Uh, yeah...I guess I must be tired."

* * *

 ***As long as it isn't Chris's blood, I think we'll be fine.**

 **I hope you enjoyed another chapter! I really just want to get the Bendy stuff, but I'm trying my best to take my time. Also, I wonder what Joey found in the basement...seems really interesting. ...Too bad we won't hear about it for another two or three chapters. Whoops :3! Also, since Chapter Two will be coming out soon, I'll reiterate that this is definitely _canon divergent!_ This will most likely not connect with the original story, although, when it does come out, I'll try to bring as much relevancy from Ch 2 as possible.**

 **Anyway, once again, I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review, a critique, or even just a "I like it." Also, are you excited for Ch 2? I can't wait to see Mark die to some 3D R** **orschach tests, since I'm broke and can't afford jack.**

 **P.S. I know it's probably obvious what he found and I know it's obvious what the voice is saying. It wasn't meant to be _too_ cryptic, so don't be a smartass about it.**

 **Disclaimer: I just said I'm broke, how am I gonna own this game? ...I do own the story though...*cries internally***


	3. IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE!

**A/N: So, yeah, sorry that this is the new update for this story, instead of an actual chapter, but I wanted to see if you guys mind going to go checkout my new Batim fanfic: Featurettes. If you don't mind, of course. As for this story, expect an update soon. The reason why it's taking so long is because not many people reviewed last chapter. So, it got me paranoid to update this story. Was the last chapter bad or...? I'm not sure unless you guys tell me. I'm just nervous. Anyway, expect a new chapter soon, tell me if last chapter was bad or not (like give any criticism you got) and, if you don't mind, go check out Featurettes! (** fanfiction).net(/s/12622226/1/Featurettes) **Just take away parenthesis.**


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